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ADDRESSES 



DELIVERED AT 



Valley Forge, May 29, 1921 




V 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

Society of Colonial Dames 

IN THE 

State of Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations 



NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE 



DEDICATION 



OF THE 



RHODE ISLAND BAY 



IN THE 



CLOISTER OF THE COLONIES 



WASHINGTON MEMORIAL CHAPEL 

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 

May 29, 1921 



Snow & Farnham Co., Printers 

45 Richmond Street 

Providence, R. I. 



V. 









Address by Rt. Rev. James DeWolf Perry, D.D. 



Right Reverend Sir: — 

In this place where a century and a half ago the men of the 
thirteen colonies turned defeat to victory and saved the cause 
of American independence by the sufferings they endured and 
the sacrifices that they made, their sons and daughters have 
gathered today to offer their tribute of grateful remembrance. 
In the heart of every State which had its part in that great 
struggle, the winter of 1777 has been remembered among 
the sacred chapters of our national history and the ground on 
which we stand has been revered as holy ground. 

Through all the years while the country refrained from 
erecting here any monument until the time should be fully 
ripe, she was yet building on the foundations laid here the 
ideals which have constituted the structure of our national 
life. Now these have taken a form which fittingly and beauti- 
fully symbolizes the story of Valley Forge. The Union of our 
nation consists not in written documents nor in institutions, 
but in human lives bound together in singleness of purpose, 
at the cost of sacrifice, for the attainment of the common good. 
So these walls bind together into one great structure the memo- 
rials of the several Commonwealths. 

As Rhode Island gave her sons, Nathanael Greene and 
Varnum, Christopher Greene and Angell, Waterman, Brown, 
and the men of the First and Second Regiments of Infantry to 
support the life of the nation, now as proudly and as gladly 
does she give her part in the Cloister of the Colonies to perpet- 
uate the memory of their deeds. 

But there is more in the memorial than the record of past 
achievement. It bears witness to a lasting resolve born once 
in the heart of America and reborn in every heart that is 
worthy of the name American. The leadership of him whose 
name this chapel bears, as it once gathered the hopes and 
aspirations of a whole nation, still represents the principles 
which America will not abandon. The dedication by each 
State of her part in this memorial is the rededication of her 
will and of her moral power to the ideals of George Washington. 



For embodying that name in this chapel, the symbol of his 
faith, the whole country owes to you, Sir, and to the founder 
and trustees of the Valley Forge Memorial, a debt of lasting 
gratitude. 

With deep appreciation of the service which you have 
rendered and which in turn you have invited at the hands of 
all the thirteen colonies, the Society of Colonial Dames, the 
Society of Colonial Wars, the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, on behalf of the citizens of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations, present this bay of the Rhode Island 
Colony to the glory of God and in perpetual remembrance of 
the brave sons of Rhode Island who here suffered that their 
country might endure. 



Address by Reverend Augustus Menden Lord, D.D. 

Every man knows moments when an event or experience 
of his boyhood or youth, recalled by some unforeseen recombi- 
nation of associations, leaps out of the growing dimness of the 
past into the clear light of memory. 

The experience, the event, lives again for him with startling '^ 
vividness. He sees its every detail, as if it happened only 
yesterday. He realizes its significance for him, its happy, or 
its tragic, consequence, its wide reaching influence, as he could 
not realize them when he was face to face with the event itself. 
For the moment the years that have since passed are as if they 
had not been ; the event of long ago which in them had counted 
for nothing and was rapidly slipping into oblivion, now pours 
the whole treasure of its spiritual content into the immediate 
present issues of his life; establishes a vital and direct con- 
nection with the commanding motives of his conduct; thrills 
his heart, exalts his will, kindles his imagination. 

Now I feel sure that something very like this happens also 
in the development of a nation, the unfolding of the destiny of 
a people. There too hours of illumination, eras of open vision, 
are among the most important elements of growth. And this 
open vision, this field of lighted life, includes the past as well 
as the present and the future. At such times a nation is 
intensely conscious of its past, sees its past more clearly, and 
sees clearly more of its past, than under the ordinary conditions 
of ordinary years when it is travelling along the lower levels 
of cautious comfort and unadventurous safety, and when it 
sees little beyond the short stretch of highway clouded by the 
rising dust of petty anxieties and cares. In the midst of such 
an era of open vision we as a people stand at this hour. And 
that may be said, with especial emphasis, of those of us who 
are gathered at this hallowed spot on the eve of Memorial 
Day. 

Until five years ago Memorial Day for a growing number of 
the people of the United States seemed to be losing its sig- 
nificance. Here am I, for instance, a man past middle age, 
born during the war for the Preservation of the Union. That 
war was not a vital reality for me. I could not envisage it, 
or recall it as a part of my living experience. Year by year 
I saw the diminishing group of the veterans of that war as they 



marched to decorate the graves of their fallen comrades. I 
saw the increasing number of those of a younger generation 
who could not share the memories of these men; who had 
known no experience of heroic fellowship in their own lives 
out of which they could sympathize with these memories, who 
had never known the ardor of that greatest love out of which a 
man lays down his life for his friends. For them Memorial 
Day was merely another holiday. So year by year I watched 
the passing of that pathetic group who carried in lonely hearts 
their devotion to vanished comradeships, while all around 
them eddied the unheeding multitudes of holiday makers and 
pleasure seekers. 

Then on a people unsuspecting and unprepared, absorbed 
in getting and spending, suddenly broke the great world war, 
and in our generation also Memorial Day came to its own. 

Today, moreover, that flame of devotion kindled anew on 
the altar of patriotic service, that shining vision of our own 
immediate personal memories, lights up a passage in our coun- 
try's history more remote than that to recall which Memorial 
Day itself was inaugurated. We visualize to ourselves the 
young men from Rhode Island who with their comrades from 
the other American colonies marched into camp and threw 
up the intrenchments here at Valley Forge in that bleak 
December of 1777. They are of the same fellowship of the 
spirit as those of 1861 and 1914; young men most of them in 
each instance; for always it is youth that pays to war the 
tribute of supreme self sacrifice. 

At one point, too, our own immediate contact with the 
heroism of the youth of today serves to interpret, to make live 
again with special vividness, the heroism of the young men of 
the War of the Revolution. We commemorate at Valley 
Forge not the heroism of battle, but the heroism of endurance; 
endurance of hunger, cold, disease, death after long lingering 
pain. To be brave and faithful under those circumstances is 
often harder than to be brave and faithful on the field of battle 
in the face of the foe. The experience of our men in the 
trenches of France parallels and interprets in many partic- 
ulars the experience of the men who endured the privation and 
agony of that terrible winter in the huts and trenches of 
Valley Forge. 

The dreary, deadly monotony of life in the trenches, the 
horrible discomfort, the sordidness and dirt, the cold and 
hunger, the nights without sleep and the days without food, 



the devastating diseases due to unavoidable overcrowding and 
exposure, and not least the strain, long drawn out from day to 
day and month to month, of just standing and waiting on the 
initiative of an enemy superior in numbers and equipment and 
discipline; meantime drilling, drilling, drilling, but never 
permitted to fight a great aggressive battle, only defensive 
outpost skirmishes here and there, — this, after all, was the 
supreme test of thousands of the hastily gathered and insuffi- 
ciently trained unprofessional soldiers of people unprepared 
for war, upon whom war had been forced, that rallied to the 
defence of civilization on the beleaguered fields of France. 

Their endurance of that test was one of the great factors, 
sometimes I am disposed to think the greatest factor, the 
turning point, in the winning of the war. 

You remember the letter which Hugh Britling wrote to his 
father in Wells' novel, "Mr. Britling Sees it Through:" 

"I never dreamt before I came here how much war is a 
business of waiting about and going through duties and 
exercises that were only too obviously a means of prevent- 
ing our discovering just how much waiting about we were 
doing. War is an exciting game. It excites once in a 
couple of months. And the rest of it is dirt and muddle 
and smashed houses and spoilt roads and muddy scenery 
and continued vague guessing of how it will end, and waste 
of life and waste of days." 

I have seen actual letters from Rhode Island boys I knew 
which voiced precisely the same sentiments. And those 
letters have made real to me the story of Valley Forge, have 
individualized that story for me, have made me realize it in the 
likeness of individual men, as I never could realize it other- 
wise. I know now that the War of the American Revolution 
was won, and that it might have been lost, at Valley Forge, as 
truly as at Yorktown. 

These letters, too, have interpreted for me, have made 
almost contemporary, letters from those Rhode Islanders of 
long ago written at Valley Forge, from which it seems fitting 
to quote today. 

Two regiments of Rhode Island men were sent to Valley 
Forge under the leadership of Col. Christopher Greene and Col. 
Israel Angell. They were stationed in and near the Star Re- 
doubt; and, after a short time, at the suggestion of Gen. 
Varnum, who later represented Rhode Island in the Con- 
tinental Congress, were consolidated into a single command. 



Just before Christmas, 1777, Gen. Varnum writes from Valley 
Forge : 

"For three days in succession we have been destitute 
of bread and two days without meat. Blankets are so 
scarce that many after working all day had to sit by the 
fires all night to keep from freezing." 



In this connection, Arnold, the Rhode Island Historian, 
notes that 

"The Rhode Island troops suffered more than others 
from sickness at Valley Forge owing to their deficiency 
of clothing, which, although it was supplied as fast as 
possible from home, came too late." 



Lieut. William Jennings and Lieut. John Waterman of the 
Rhode Island command, both died of small-pox. The grave 
of the latter was marked at the time of his burial by a rough 
stone inscribed with his initials. Apparently no other grave 
was marked by a permanent memorial; a fact which is 
recorded on the beautiful shaft of white marble erected near 
the spot by the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Of all the personal letters written from here in 1777-78, 
however, those that interest me most are naturally the letters 
of Rev. Enos Hitchcock, at that time Brigade Chaplain under 
Washington at Valley Forge. It is, perhaps, to his presence 
here in that capacity that I owe the invitation to speak to you 
today. For immediately on the completion of his service as 
Chaplain in the Continental Army, he became minister of the 
First Congregational Church in Providence, where I am privi- 
leged to be his successor. 

Writing from Valley Forge under date of May 15, 1778, he 
says: 

"Our troops are in high spirits after the distressing 
sufferings of the winter which nothing could equal but 
the unparalleled patience with which they are endured. 
The noble commander in chief, whose heart ached to see 
it, says they deserve everything from their country. I 
wish their merit might be rewarded. It gives me pain to 
see the nakedness of our soldiery. The clothing is but 
little of it come in yet. Numbers of our brigade are 
destitute even of a shirt and have nothing but the 
ragged remains of some loose garments for a partial 
covering. But this is more tolerable now than when it 



was colder. We have no prospects of clothing for more 
than three regiments of our brigade***great improve- 
ments are making in the discipline of the army, several 
hours a day being devoted to that purpose. Our strength 
increases faster in this way than by addition of numbers." 

It was for the development of that discipline, of course, 
that Washington withdrew his troops into intrenchments at 
Valley Forge, That discipline he established, in spite of the 
wiles of the enemy who tried to tempt him to fight before he 
was prepared ; and in spite of the impatience, the heart break- 
ing jealousy and lack of confidence, of many of his own fellow- 
countrymen, as exemplified by the notorious 'Cabal' in the 
Continental Congress which plotted to detach Lafayette from 
service with Washington, and even aimed to deprive Washing- 
ton himself of his Command and to put in his place Gates or 
Lee. 

Valley Forge marks the point of greatest strain and peril 
the darkest and most critical hour in the Revolutionary War. 
It also marks the hour in which was forged for American the 
sword of the spirit of that little army with which at last she 
won her freedom. 

We are proud of the men of Rhode Island who were part of 
that army, leaders like Gen. Nathanael Greene, whom Washing- 
ton trusted and loved, a friend indeed in the hour of Washing- 
ton's greatest need of friends; men of the rank and file of 
those two regiments who were eager and proud to follow such 
leaders. 

It is in memory of these men that we, a company of pil- 
grims from Rhode Island, are gathered here today to dedicate 
our assigned portion of this beautiful Chapel which fittingly 
bears the name of their beloved Commander in Chief. As he 
shared here in their hardships "which his heart ached to see," 
it is fitting that they should share in the noble beauty of the 
building which commemorates the glory of the achievement 
which they helped to make possible for him. 

In observing this ceremony of grateful memorial, however, 
there must be borne in upon our minds the thought which no 
doubt has suggested itself to every one of the successive groups 
of pilgrims from other states represented here by like memo- 
rials, the thought which found immortal expression in Lincoln's 
Gettysburg Address: 



/ 



"In a larger sense" said Lincoln "we cannot dedicate, 
we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. // 
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- 
ing before us.'' 

To such a consecration of heart and will we yield our- 
selves at this hour. And our hope and faith is that whosoever 
hereafter enters this sacred place and stands in the presence 
of these memorials will be moved to a like self-consecration 
and self-dedication; that through all the coming years and 
centuries of our country's history this may be a place of pil- 
grimage to which many of its citizens may journey in days 
of prosperity and peace; and to which the thoughts of all its 
citizens may turn in hours of national strain and trial and 
utmost peril. 

Whosoever enters here disheartened and discouraged, 
whether for himself or for his country, who feels himself to 
have fallen on evil times, who finds himself beleaguered by 
hostile and triumphant circumstance, the tide of fortune 
setting hard against him, at his back passive misunderstanding 
and neglect and active envy and plottings, before him an oppo- 
sition flushed with success, strong in all the resources he lacks, 
whosoever enters here feeling himself to have reached the end 
of his strength, let him remember that company of dauntless 
men who here by sheer power of endurance, by unremitting 
devotion, held their own against all that was foreign to their 
faith and alien to their hope; who won through the darkest 
hour in the enterprise to which they had committed them- 
selves, snatched the spirit of a new nation alive from the very 
jaws of death, and made these wooded hills forever holy 
ground. 



28 W 


















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